Category: productivity
How to Change the Colour of Folders in OSX
There is no simple built-in way to change the folder colour in OSX. But this free app does it. Drag a folder onto it and it will change it’s colour! Colourful Folder You can download it form the Apple App Store here: https://apps.apple.com/au/app/colorful-folder/id1576476152?mt=12
Incredible ‘holiday’ focus mode
I’ve never found a good way to block out business calls from my iPhone on Holidays. Quite often I’ve just turned my phone off. Apple’s new ‘focus’ mode is very powerful and allows you to stop all incoming calls and notifications, then just let through calls that you want. They don’t appear at all!
Great productivity tip: create a tmp folder.
I’ve been doing this for years, but I’ve never written an article about it. I have an easily accessible folder, available from anywhere, where I throw anything that is temporary. I can easily find what I need, but it doesn’t clutter other places up. Read on… it’s better than it sounds.
How to add Google Keep to OSX to sync your notes across your phones.
Google Keep is Google’s equivalent of Apple Notes, but a bit better. It’s a place to keep snippets and other stuff. Now that our family has moved to Android phones we need a simple way that we can synchronise notes across Android and Apple devices. Google Keep seems to be the best solution. There is…
Managing yourself – quick calendar access
For my particular workflow and management I’ve settled on using Google calendar. My tip for super fast calendar access in OS X is to dedicate a browser to your Google calendar and use that browser for nothing else. You may choose Chrome or Safari or Firefox, I chose Microsoft edge and here’s why.
Hoe to use Google Tasks in OSX (MacOS).
When Wunderlist closed down we’ve been left without a good task manager that easily syncs across Google and MacOS. AnyDo doesn’t have a MacOS app. I can’t get my Google assistant to add a new todo into to ‘Todoist’. Google Tasks isn’t great but it does have the advantage that it is built right in…
How to get 1Password 7 to automatically enter passwords again
From Mojave onwards it’s no longer possible to get the 1 Password app to automatically entering your passwords into a webpage. Previously there was a keypress that would automatically fill a web form and enter your password and then press the submit button. According to the one password forum this was disabled by Apple: This…
Fluro Church Management Software.
I’ve recently discovered some great new Church management software called Fluro. It’s the most creative software I’ve used for ages. I’m spending so much time learning how to use it I haven’t had time for a proper article about but I’ve decided to so some short podcast episodes talking about some of the features. You…
How to remap any key to any key on your OSX keyboard
This is a somewhat technical post about how to remap keys in OSX using Karabiner Elements.
Notational Velocity sync is broken!
Notational Velocity is my favourite note taking app for little bits of information you’d like to save anywhere then be able to recall later. Notational Velocity sync broke in October 2018 when the sync engine they relied on (Simplenote) changed the domain of their notes server. Over at GitHub there’s been a fix, but it…
Unclutter
Every now and then I stumble across a life changing app that completely changes the way I interact with my computer. Quicksilver. Devonthink Pro. Jumpcut. Keyboard Maestro. 1Password. Dropbox. Hazel. These are Apps that I cannot do without! In my 20 years of being a mac user there has been a handful of such apps…
Please help petition Microsoft to allow multiple documents in the same Word window.
On a PC you can have 2 documents open in the same Microsoft Word window (just select ‘View Side by Side’ but you can’t do that on the Mac version of Word. I’ve just written to Microsoft to encourage them to add it to the Mac version. Feel free to join me if it’s something…
Paste verses from Accordance without leaving your word processor
I have written this little AppleScript Quick Action that can paste bible verses from Accordance into any application without having to leave that application. From any application (eg Mail, Microsoft Word, Page etc) simply hit Command-7 and you will get this dialog box: Enter in the verses you want, press OK (or hit return) and…
How to change the name of lots of files in OSX
I discovered this little application a while ago called ‘namechanger’. It allows you to automatically change the name of a large number of files in one go. It has lots of options. You can add something to the start of filenames or to the end. You can do search and replace of filenames. You can…
How to get a new file menu inOS X using right click
Summary: This great little app (costs $2.99) allows you to right-click in any folder and make a new document. Windows users will be used to the ability to right-click anywhere and make a new file. Unfortunately you cannot do this on a Mac. For many years I have had a quicksilver shortcut which allows me to…
How to add Devonthink documents to your Quicksilver catalogue
Quicksilver is one of my favourite apps for accessing documents quickly and doing all sorts of tasks. I use it almost every time I want to open a new app, open a document or find a folder. I also use Devonthink to store all my files. I am converting over to a paperless office. (Hopefully…
How to quickly unsubscribe from email lists
I have lots of ‘subscription’ emails arriving in my inbox. Some I have subscribed to, some I am not sure how I ended up being subscribed. I just found a great tool for unsubscribing from them all in one go. It’s called unroll.me and here are the results, I unsubscribed from 54 email lists!
Take control of your iPhone use
An article at theatlantic.com I just read a fascinating interview with Tristan Harris, former Google employee who worked on Google Inbox about the way these companies manipulate us rather than serve us with their software. A must read if you use facebook or any messaging or email app.
Tab Launcher
Tab Launcher is a great little app that sits on the side or top of your screen. It’s like a manilla folder where you can put commonly used files. It makes accessing them much quicker. The great thing is you don’t have to actually move the files into tab launcher. Your files stay exactly where…
How to export to-do items from Things to Wunderlist
Things is still my favourite to-do app but Wunderlist is free and it’s Android compatible. Here’s how to export your to-do items from Things to Wunderlist.